Biotech Potatoes in the 21st Century: 20 Years Since the First Biotech Potato

Integrated pest management (IPM) is an important tool for sustainable crop production. IPM includes a diversity of methods, e.g., the use of biological control agents (BCAs) for disease control or growth promotion. While there is an increasing interest in the use of BCAs, less is known about their environmental costs and benefits on wild species, such as wild crop relatives. For example, a BCA may have the positive effect of controlling disease in wild relatives, but could also have the negative effect of growth promotion on wild relatives that act as weeds. In this study, we investigated if three wild potato relatives—the perennial climber Solanum dulcamara , and the annual weeds S. nigrum and S. physalifolium —could be infected by Alternaria solani , the causal agent of early potato blight in Sweden, and studied how two BCAs, Pythium oligandrum (a laboratory strain) and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (Serenade), affected the disease and growth promotion in a series of greenhouse and field experiments. Our studies confirmed the semantic knowledge that A. solani can infect all three wild species, in particular the two annual species often growing as weeds in potato fields. We also found a disease-controlling effect of B. amyloliquefaciens , but not P. oligandrum , in the greenhouse. Some growth effects were found for both BCAs, but whether these were positive or negative varied with trait, plant species, and genotype. In conclusion, BCAs can confer both environmental costs and benefits on the three wild relatives of potato investigated in the current study, which should be taken into consideration for development of sustainable potato cultivation.

Apop la stic effector s MAM Ps an d su r f ace im m u n e recep tor s the battlefront of the Phytophthora infestans -potato interaction Xiao Li n Apoplastic effectors, MAMPs and surface immune receptors

Inbred-hybrid breeding of diploid potatoes necessitates breeding lines that are self-compatible. One way of incorporating self-compatibility into incompatible cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) germplasm is to introduce the S-locus inhibitor gene (Sli), which functions as a dominant inhibitor of gametophytic self-incompatibility. To learn more about Sli diversity and function in wild species relatives of cultivated potato, we obtained Sli gene sequences that extended from the 5'UTR to the 3'UTR from 133 individuals from 22 wild species relatives of potato and eight diverse cultivated potato clones. DNA sequence alignment and phylogenetic trees based on genomic and protein sequences show that there are two highly conserved groups of Sli sequences. DNA sequences in one group contain the 533 bp insertion upstream of the start codon identified previously in self-compatible potato. The second group lacks the insertion. Three diploid and four polyploid individuals of wild species collected from geographically disjointed localities contained Sli with the 533 bp insertion. For most of the wild species clones examined, however, Sli did not have the insertion. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sli sequences with the insertion, in wild species and in cultivated clones, trace back to a single origin. Some diploid wild potatoes that have Sli with the insertion were self-incompatible and some wild potatoes that lack the insertion were self-compatible. Although there is evidence of positive selection for some codon positions in Sli, there is no evidence of diversifying selection at the gene level. In silico analysis of Sli protein structure did not support the hypothesis that amino acid changes from wild-type (no insertion) to insertion-type account for changes in protein function. Our study demonstrated that genetic factors besides the Sli gene must be important for conditioning a switch in the mating system from self-incompatible to self-compatible in wild potatoes.

Genomics studies in potato and other plants have elucidated a large number of genes involved in a wide array of phenotypes. In particular, recent bioinformatic and genomic analyses of oomycetes and fungi have identified many effectors for which the corresponding host resistance-eliciting receptor remains to be found. Functional testing of host resistance gene candidates can be accomplished by generating whole plant transformants to either overexpress or silence these genes to obtain a visible phenotype. However, this is time consuming. Alternatively, Agrobacterium tumefaciens can be used to transiently express genes in plant tissue to observe phenotypic changes. Wild relatives of potato contain a large amount of genotypic diversity and are an excellent tool to identify important agronomic traits, including resistance to diseases. The methods presented here help to facilitate the screening of wild potato accessions using agroinfiltration.

The genus Solanum includes important crop species and numerous wild species. The wild Solanum species are a genetic diversity treasure trove useful for the improvement of crops, with disease resistance being of critical importance. In this chapter, I review the status of research and breeding efforts for improved nematode and virus resistance in Solanum crops, especially potato and tomato. In total, 33 disease resistance genes are described; virtually all originate from wild relatives of potato and tomato. This observation underscores the utility of wild Solanum species and the need to prioritize their conservation through in situ and ex situ approaches. Trends in research well positioned to impact trait discovery in wild Solanum species and introgression into crop species are outlined. Included are the potential to mine genebank collections for novel disease resistance alleles using target DNA sequencing approaches, visualization of deep evolutionary and allele diversification patterns across the Solanaceae, and streamlined gene mapping and cloning methodologies. The potential impacts of Marker Assisted Breeding, genetic transformation, gene-editing, and conversion of cultivated potato to a diploid species are explored. A growing world population and changing global climate that requires crop plants to tolerate increasingly chaotic production environments present the need for urgent investment in the genetic improvement of crops, with crop wild relatives being critical donors of useful traits.

Nutrients from anaerobic digestion effluents for cultivation of the microalga Nannochloropsis sp. — Impact on growth, biochemical composition and the potential for cost and environmental impact savings

Comparison of the environmental impact of incineration and landfilling in São Paulo City as determined by LCA

Aviation consists of closely coupled stakeholders, a tool to value novel aircraft concepts should therefore incorporate relations between these stakeholders, product and environment. In particular valuation of environmental impact requires this integrated approach as efficiency of the technology and use of this technology combined comprise the environmental impact. Within the CleanEra project at the Delft University of Technology various technologies are developed for an environmentally friendly aircraft. The proposed framework is therefore intended as a consistent design support and valuation tool for future aircraft technology, including traceability of requirements, and the dynamic environment of stakeholders. The framework uses game-theory and discrete choice analysis to quantify stakeholder behavior. The framework is used to broaden the use of quality function deployment from a customer oriented to a stakeholder oriented approach. This puts the aircraft design in the system of systems environment of aviation by treating non-customer behaviour as requirements on the design instead of constraints. A set of aircraft stakeholders and their interactions is implemented, showing the interaction of passenger, airline and aircraft manufacturer on the aircraft requirements. The implementation was used to evaluate the effect of a reduction in aircraft environmental impact, including the changed behaviour of the airlines and passengers. The reduction in environmental impact on aviation level was found to be smaller than the environmental impact reduction of the aircraft, due to increased use of aircraft. This difference supports the idea that the environmental impact of new aircraft designs should be evaluated in a dynamic environment.

Genetic diversity studies between Ipomoea wild species and cultivated sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) using SSR markers

Cold-induced sweetening and browning in the Maillard reaction have driven extensive research in the areas of plant physiology, biochemistry, and food science in Solanum tuberosum because of its importance to the potato-processing industry. Prior research has not characterized wild Solanum relatives of potato for tuber composition and has not determined if relationships between tuber composition and chip color after cold storage in wild species are comparable to those found for cultivated potato. Extensive inter- and intraspecific variation for chip color and tuber composition were found in the wild Solanum species examined. Tuber sugar profiles suggested that invertase activity at low temperatures differed between and within species. Tuber fructose, glucose, and sucrose concentrations partially explained chip color variation in most accessions, but asparagine concentration and percent dry matter did not. Most wild species had reducing sugar concentrations and chip color scores after 2 degrees C storage that were less than those in S. tuberosum cultivar Snowden. Sugar profiles and relationships between specific sugars and chip color in Solanum pinnatisectum were unique among the species examined.

This paper will give an overview of LCA studies on lead metal production and use recently conducted by the International Lead Association. The lead industry, through the International Lead Association (ILA), has recently completed three life cycle studies to assess the environmental impact of lead metal production and two of the products that make up approximately 90 % of the end uses of lead, namely lead-based batteries and architectural lead sheet. Lead is one of the most recycled materials in widespread use and has the highest end-of-life recycling rate of all commonly used metals. This is a result of the physical chemical properties of the metal and product design, which makes lead-based products easily identifiable and economic to collect and recycle. For example, the end-of-life collection and recycling rates of lead automotive and industrial batteries and lead sheet in Europe are 99 and 95 %, respectively, making them one of the few products that operate in a true closed loop. These high recycling rates, coupled with the fact that both lead-based batteries and architectural lead sheet are manufactured from recycled material, have a beneficial impact on the results of LCA studies, significantly lowering the overall environmental impact of these products. This means that environmental impacts associated with mining and smelting of lead ores are minimised and in some cases avoided completely. The lead battery LCA assesses not only the production and end of life but also the use phase of these products in vehicles. The study demonstrates that the technological capabilities of innovative advanced lead batteries used in start-stop vehicles significantly offset the environmental impact of their production. A considerable offset is realised through the savings achieved in global warming potential when lead-based batteries are installed in passenger vehicles with start-stop and micro-hybrid engine systems which have significantly lower fuel consumption than regular engines. ILA has undertaken LCAs which investigate the environmental impact associated with the European production of lead metal and the most significant manufactured lead products (lead-based batteries used in vehicles and architectural lead sheet for construction) to ensure up-to-date and robust data is publically and widely available.

Multiobjective economic and environmental optimization of global crude oil purchase and sale planning with noncooperative stakeholders

Wild relatives of potato offer a tremendous germplasm resource for breeders. Because the germplasm base of potato is so broad and diverse, we have undertaken a series of studies to determine whether we can predict the distribution of valuable genes in wild Solanum species based on taxonomic or biogeographic data. This is the third study in the series. Resistance to defoliation by Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, larvae was evaluated in 156 accessions of 41 wild Solanum species. The highest frequencies of resistant accessions were found in diploid species with an endosperm balance number of 1. In contrast to previous studies on resistance to foliar fungal pathogens, there was little variability in defoliation scores among plants within an accession and among accessions within a species, at least for the most resistant species. There was no strong association of Colorado potato beetle resistance in wild potato species to biogeographic data. Resistance was confirmed in species previously characterized by high levels of glycoalkaloids or dense glandular trichomes. However, we have identified additional species with resistance to the Colorado potato beetle. Mechanisms of resistance are being studied in these species and attempts will be made to introgress them into the cultivated potato.

The genus Corchorus, commonly known as jute, includes more than 170 species, all of which are annual fibrous plants. Jute fiber is totally biodegradable and compostable and therefore an extremely attractive renewable resource. While the cultivated species, C. olitorius L. and C. capsularis L., are economically important for fibre production, the wild species are considered important genetic resources for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and fine fibre trait. However, there are some constraints in jute cultivation and research. The cultivation requires lot of watering which is often hampered due to late showering and low moisture content in the air. Jute is very prone to disease and pest attack. Although application of pesticides is a popular preventive measure it also raises the issue of biomagnifications of those harmful chemicals by entering the food chain of the ecosystem. In addition, the fibre processing disturbs the environment by causing water pollution during retting. Some other negative issues related to its cultivation are indoor air emissions from the products, and greenhouse gas emission due to using waste jute for energy. The high cost of production in comparison to synthetic materials leads to unemployment due to closing of jute processing factories which becomes a major concern in terms of socio economic impact of jute cultivation. Apart from these issues related to cultivation, some other constraints also exists in its research. The cell wall of Corchorus is composed of high amount of lignin which is a major barrier for cytological and cytogenetical analysis. Due to these problems the wild as well as the cultivated species of jute are poorly understood and explored and thus in most of the cases hybridization attempts was not successful till now. However, proper hybridization between wild and cultivated species needs adequate information on morphological, cytological, cytogenetical biochemical and molecular aspects and will result in the emergence of novel plant types with several beneficial characters. With a view to all of these including the economical importance of jute species, an overview is conducted involving nearly all essential aspects to provide updated and adequate information to researchers for effective utilization in human benefit. This chapter reviews morphological, biochemical, cytological, palynological, anatomical and molecular analysis of genome along with induced mutagenesis, interspecific hybridization, pest management, retting procedures, tissue culture and transgenic development strategies in jute species for their successful exploitation. Cytological and cytogenetical aspects will provide a wealth of information about the chromosomes and their behavior that forms the basis of efficient interspecific hybri­dization. Information on biochemical parameters is important for providing a knowledge base regarding further research on fibre quality improvement. Although induced mutagenesis is known as an effective tool for creating superior plant types having morphological and biochemical marker traits, adequate reports on jute is meager. This aspect is discussed in detail as one of the major points. Jute cultivation has always suffered from pest attack and various microbial infections. Reports on jute pests and disease and their management will be helpful for taking necessary preventive measures against its damage in field. Moreover, transgenic development and efficient tissue culture method are important for rapid propagation of jute and for introducing desirable traits in short times and for optimum utilization of available resource to achieve a low cost of production and high benefit.

Regional food supply, organic farming, and changing food consumption are three major strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of the agricultural sector. In the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg (population: 11 million), multiple policy and economic incentives drive the uptake of these three strategies, but quantitative assessments of their overall impact abatement potential are lacking. Here, the question of how much food can be produced regionally while keeping environmental impacts within political targets is tackled by comparing a scenario of maximum productivity to an optimal solution obtained with a multi-objective optimization (MO) approach. The investigation covers almost the entirety of productive land in the state, two production practices (organic or conventional), four environmental impact categories, and three demand scenarios (base, vegetarian, and vegan). We present an area-based indicator to quantify the self-sufficiency of regional food supply, as well as the database required for its calculation. Environmental impacts are determined using life cycle assessment. Governmental goals for reducing environmental impacts from agriculture are used by the MO to determine and later rate the different Pareto-efficient solutions, resulting in an optimal solution for regional food supply under environmental constraints. In the scenario of maximal output, self-sufficiency of food supply ranged between 61% and 66% (depending on the diet), and most political targets could not be met. On the other hand, the optimal solution showed a higher share of organic production (ca. 40%–80% com¬pared to 0%) and lower self-sufficiency values (between 40% and 50%) but performs substantially better in meeting political targets for environmental impact reduction. At the county level, self-sufficiency varies between 2% for densely populated urban districts and 80% for rural counties. These results help policy-makers benchmark and refine their goalsetting regarding regional self-sufficiency and environmental impact reduction, thus ensuring effective policymaking for sustainable community development.